The 2022/3 season is incredibly exciting, we have machines like Erling Haaland gracing the premier league and still, at this point in time, it looks like Arsenal could lift the title after almost 20 years. Over in Italy, Piedmont giants Juventus have suffered a 15 point handicap for financial irregularities and did I forget to mention that Messi lifted the World Cup? The sport has millions of fans globally and is especially popular in the UK, home of the premier league. But how does football and tabletop games fit? Today we will be looking at the best football board games.
Table of Contents
- Managerial-Themed Football Board Games
- Match-Themed Football Board Games
- Other Football Board Games
- Football Board Games: Barcelona 2008/9 or Derby 2007/8?
Managerial-Themed Football Board Games
The following board games are all about owning or managing a football team
Football Billionaire
Football Billionaire is a Football Board Game all about owning a football club and who has not wanted to splash the cash for their favourite team? All the teams in this game are fictitious, but the ideas are the same. Will you be like Todd Boehly or the Glazer family, or someone else entirely? It is up to you.
The game is every football owner’s dream: Purchase Clubs and Stadiums and buy the perfect team. Hire the best worldwide managers and fire those who do not perform. Increase the value of your club and sign multi-million (£) sponsorship deals.
It is not all plain sailing though, as the famous saying goes: the easiest way to become a millionaire is be a billionaire and buy a football club. These things haemorrhage money, so it is best to manage your finances efficiently.
The game played through a card driven mechanic and is suitable for the whole family.
The publishers behind the game also have some specific Premier league club titles below if you are a fan of any of these it might be worth checking out:
- Chelsea Football Club Board Game
- West Ham Football Club Board Game
- Manchester City Football Club Board Game
Eleven: Football Manager Board Game
Eleven is actually the most recently published game on the list, released in 2022. It is quite a complex game and reminiscent of the PC football manager series. Some could go as far as saying that this is an economic management game set in the football world.
It can be played two-player or solo, but is probably best played alone, with the aim of growing your football club over the course of a season. Some of the various activities in the game include:
- Hiring Staff members – This could be as basic as trainers and coaches to PR specialists and footballing directors
- Acquire sponsors
- Manage the club’s social media
- Expand your stadium
- Buy and sell players
- Manage match tactics
The game is more than just being a football manager, its being a coach, owner, director, leader, and more. If you want the full football club experience in a board game, this is it.
Match-Themed Football Board Games
These games are about playing football itself on the pitch
Subbuteo
Subbuteo is the absolute classic football board game going back all the way to 1947! It is probably the game that comes to mind when people look for football board games, but they do not quite know the name.
The game is all about on-field play, with little miniatures representing players. Players flick the miniatures to kick the ball up field. There are parts of the game dedicated to goal kicks, throw ins and even fouling.
Due to the nature of it being a flicking driven game there are some different rules to actual football, for example, one team attack and one team defends at any time. In addition, the attacker cannot use the same player three times in a row and if any of your flicks hit a defender, play switches.
Along with this there have been many collectable additions added over the years like line judges, stadium lights and fans. It really makes you feel like you are playing the beautiful game – or as close to it on a tabletop!
Street Soccer
We will allow it to be called Soccer this one time because the title flows nicely. This game simulates the beautiful game and takes it to the streets of Holland, who are not particularly known for their street football, but are the designers of this game. As many know, street football is a 5v5 variant of football. The board is a 10×6 grid where dice are used to determine the number of places a player can move and the length of passes/shots.
A really fun mechanic in this game is that when the ball is passed to a fellow player they gain momentum and the ball can be passed again. Momentum is +1 on the roll, so say you rolled a 5 this gives you 5 spaces worth of passing and movement, each time you pass to a player you get a bonus space of movement. This momentum feature really helps to encapsulate the tiki-taka style of street football with quick passing, team play and game winning opportunities.
Soccer: The Board Game
Unfortunately I have already broken my not-calling-it-soccer rule, but I do not make the names and, for the sake of argument let’s call this an extension to Street soccer. This is because the game actually plays exceptionally similar to street soccer – the players even look the same. The difference here is that the board is 10×14 so slightly bigger and now we are playing 6v6. Gameplay is still determined by dice rolls, but there are some additional action cards in the game.
Other Football Board Games
These are games we could not quite pin down into the other categories.
The World Cup Game
The World Cup Game was released in line with the 2006 football World Cup in Germany. Ironically enough though, the base game is about the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay – the very first world cup, and the 2002 world cup in Japan and Korea.
It is a card driven game and with that does come some luck. Cards may have straightforward results, such as “score 3 goals” to slightly more complicated defence cards which reduce your opponents chances of scoring. Of course, if your opponent has a hand full of score goal cards you will be in a bit of trouble!
Interestingly, the tournament structure rules are different for each game and subsequent expansions. By this we mean the rules were not really ironed out in 1930. By 2002, there were changes to pitch size and how to resolve ties – so each game is a bit different.
It is a board game that really does give you that football world cup experience.
Brainbox: Football
Brainbox is an English Football League quiz board game. It shares a similar structure to other games of the series. Players have ten seconds to memorize as much about the football card they have drawn. The information on the cards might be something like famous players, club logos, fun facts, and club history. Your opponent will then read a random question based on the card you just memorised, determined by a dice roll. If you get it right, you can keep the card. Guess it wrong and the card goes into a discard pile. The player with the most card at the end of 10 minutes wins.
It is a pretty straightforward quizzing game, but it is limited to British football. The game explores clubs and players from the Premier League, League 1, and League 2. Examples of clubs might be Liverpool and Arsenal, all the way down to Port Vale and Leighton Orient.
There was also a Man United edition of Brainbox released if that is the only football team you are interested in quizzing about.
Football Board Games: Barcelona 2008/9 or Derby 2007/8?
First, I would like to apologise to any Derby fans reading this, but objectively, 11 points in the 2007/8 season is the lowest amount of points in the Premier League. At the same time Barcelona won the treble in 2008/9 with Pep, so they did have a good year. And so that begs the question: are football board games good or not? Certainly, the games focused on football manager are more complex, layered, and strategic than the match games, but games like Subbuteo are childhood defining for some. As with most games, it depends on your likes and dislikes, but there is almost certainly something in this list for everyone, football fans or not alike.
